The Evolution of the Size of Human Brain

This is a brain essay in which the following quastion is analysed: how has the size of the brain within this century influenced how Homo Sapiens interpret language, technology and culture?

Rational

This study explores how the evolution of the larger brain is not important to the creation of the homo sapiens language, technology and culture. Most researchers believe that the ‘Bigger Brain’ is a false accusation of what's going on in this century. Fake' NEWS' claims that our brains are getting bigger to grasp more details. Nonetheless, this is incorrect, as there has been empirical evidence that supports the claim that the present homo sapiens don't have brains larger than what Homo Sapiens have had in the past. The question that everyone is asking is, how has the size of the brain within this centaur influenced how Homo Sapiens interpret language, technology, and culture? It is important that humans understand the effects of what is happing to the homo sapiens brain and how it effects the way the human perceive technology, culture and language.

Background

Language, which means that the human beings, as members of a social group and as participants in their societies, articulate themselves, as a form of traditional spoken, handbook and written symbols. Language roles include interaction, recognition, recreation, imagination and emotional emancipation. The mechanism of language acquisition is explained by four theories: behavioural theory, innateness, cognitive theory, and communication theory. While each of the theories applies to the subject of children, the definitions differ greatly. Technology is known as research and understanding of the use of scientific discoveries, in industry. Our current understanding of human psychology may be limited by the fact that most research studies involve participants that represent a very narrow slice of humanity. A brain is described as the centre of all learning, the brain is used to create meaning and control everything that you do. Homo sapiens are humans. They are the most known advanced creatures in the whole universe.

Natural selection is described as an individual’s unequal survival and reproduction due to phenotype variations. There are five main types of selection. Firstly, in population genetics, directional selection or positive selection is a natural selection process in which an extreme phenotype is preferred over other phenotypes, allowing the frequency of the allele to change over time towards that phenotype. Secondly, Stabilizing selection is a form of natural selection where a non-extreme trait value is stabilized by the mean population. This is the most important action mechanism of natural selection as most traits do not seem to change drastically over time. Thirdly, Disruptive selection describes changes in population genetics that favour extreme trait values over intermediate values. In this case, the trait variance increases, dividing the population into two separate groups. In this, more individuals at both ends of the distribution curve gain peripheral character value. Fourth, Sex selection is a natural selection process in which members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex to match and compete with members of the same sex to gain members. Artificial selection is the mechanism by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively establish different phenotypic traits (characteristics) by selecting what usually males and females of animals or plants will reproduce sexually and have offspring together. 

Evidence

There is evidence that supports the idea that the homo sapiens brains are rapidly decreasing in size within the past century. After much research, there has been a lot of great reliable sources to support my claim. The Idiocracy theory states that “As complex societies emerged, the brain became smaller because people did not have to be as smart to stay alive.” The report talks about how as society develops further causing less social interactions, our brain is getting smaller causing the decline in the brain’s matter.

Another piece of evidence that supports my research question is “Did life evolve once or many times? The presence of the same RNA and DNA in all organisms and homologies in the machinery of DNA transcription and translation suggest that at least all current life on Earth has a common origin. It is possible that life evolved more than once but all descendants of these other origins became extinct and left no fossil or other traces.” The article discusses how, many other species come from the same origin for language. However, there are gaps that will later be discussed in the conclusion.

The blood flow rate is in relation to the activity level in the Cranium. The trend line shows how we have been evolving over time, however there are some outliers. Is clearly shown how the homo floresiensis is within quite recent times, yet it has such a low blood flow. This is due to this species not haven much common sense. 

Technology is known to be a major reason why the size of the brain has shrunk. An article states that “The fact that we increasingly store and process information externally—in books, computers and online—means that many of us can probably get by with smaller brains.” The article supports the idea that technology is causing our brains to decline due to humans not having to store information as technology does it for us.” Many scientist have said that our brains are getting larger and even though it is getting smaller, there was once a 2-million-year period where our brains were increasing in size due to the evolution. In recent studies, it shows that due to heat, all our bodies are losing mass over time, this causes our brains to get smaller. In 2007, a neuroscientist surveyed 3,000 people and found that the younger respondents were less likely to remember standard personal information, such as a relative's birthday or even their own phone number. Similar studies have shown that homo sapiens are unable to travel their own city without a GPS. This proves that technology is not only decreasing the amount of knowledge that is stored in our brain, but it is also decreasing the size of the brain.

Evaluation

The thought and idea of the human brain decreasing is known as a ‘taboo’ topic. Therefore, this report has been written, to educate the realism of how the brain has been changing. When researching the effects of language, there wasn’t much information and this caused a gap in my evidence. This could be because the brain has known effect on size weather you speak one or more languages.

Almost all sources used in the report were reliable however there are some sources that might not be due to them being from a dishonest website or article. most websites were either scientist or university reports, however they are mostly professional opinions, research or facts. A majority of articles provided their author, however there was a struggle to find the dates as there has been new information added over time.

The graph in the evidence showed the level of blood flow to the brain and the effects of the skull size. It showed that the more blood flow, the bigger the brain. This graph provides support to my claim that brains are getting smaller due to the level of brain activity. The human brain is getting destroyed by not learning and memorising information such as phone numbers.

A limitation throughout the data was that the information was quite the same. The many websites used and found throughout this report support my thoughts in all the same way including containing the same information.

Conclusion

The research question was, how has the size of the brain within this centaur influenced how Homo Sapiens interpret language, technology, culture and social? The chosen question clearly explains the information of defining language, technology and culture.

The outcomes of the research that was found was why the brain is getting smaller and how it is changing. This discovered the many reasons of how homo sapiens do not need to have a bigger brain and a smaller brain is still able to help us.

Plenty of information was found for the other topics, however language seems to have no effect on the brain if it is smaller. When researching the effects of language, there wasn’t much information and this caused a gap in my evidence.

In the future, there has been research to support the brain will decrease in time due to how this generation doesn’t use it anymore. If homo sapiens continue to invest most of their time on technology, their brain could become so small in the future, humans may not be able to have good retentive memories.

Why has the brain changed over the past two million years? Does this impact the understanding of language, technology and culture? There is evidence to support the idea that the brains of homo sapiens have been declining rapidly in size over the past century. The human brain's decreasing thinking and idea is known as a' taboo' topic. The study was therefore written to inform the reality of how the mind has evolved.

Bibliography

• BioMed Central. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5525259/
• MICHALKO, M. (2012, 1 11). Retrieved from http://creativethinking.net/the-idiocracy-theory/
• Robins, R. H. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/language
• SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. (2012, 11 1). Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-have-our-brains-started-to-shrink/
• WARD, P. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-may-become-of-homo-sapiens/
• Wikipedia®. (2019, 10 17). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology#targetText=Technology%20(%22science%20of%20craft%22,objectives%2C%20such%20as%20scientific%20investigation.
• ZIMMERMANN, K. A. (2017, 7 13). Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/21478-what-is-culture-definition-of-culture.html